Regional South Australia

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:40): Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier advise the house on what action the government is taking to invest in regional South Australia and, in particular, update the house on the Premier's recent trips to the South-East?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:40): I would like to thank the member for MacKillop for his question and also for hosting me in his electorate on Sunday. It was a great trip to a great electorate. I was in Mount Gambier on Saturday, where I know that the member for Mount Gambier was very busy being a volunteer at the wonderful Generations in Jazz Festival that was held there.

It has just been pointed out by the manager of government business that I have overlooked probably the longest serving advocate in this parliament for Generations in Jazz, the very hardworking member for Florey, who has long advocated on behalf of that jazz festival here in this parliament and made many speeches on it. It is truly an awe-inspiring occasion. If people in this house have not been down there yet, get down there as soon as possible.

Over 5,000 students were down there on the weekend, ably led by, of course, South Australia's very own James Morrison, who has set up in Mount Gambier the James Morrison Academy, along with the University of South Australia. He is inspiring the students not just in Mount Gambier but right across the nation. There were students there from every state of Australia and the ACT as well. It gets bigger and bigger each year. This year, as a special guest, they had Grammy Award-winning Patti Austin. What a thrill it was to see her.

I was most impressed, though, that the winner this year, who is often right up there at the very pinnacle, was Marryatville High School, which is, of course, in the electorate of Bragg. Maybe the Deputy Premier and myself will be down there together next year, as she defends that title.

The regions are crucially important to the government. They were neglected under the previous government for an extended period of time. People in regional South Australia constantly tell me that they felt completely and utterly overlooked by the previous government. They will not be overlooked by this government. It is always a great pleasure for me to travel into one of our great regions and talk to them about the positive policies we've got for growing regional populations across our state.

As to other states of Australia, in Queensland, for example, they grew their regional population last year by 30,000 people. New South Wales and Victoria grew their regional population by more than 20,000 in each of those states. In recent times, regional population in South Australia has actually diminished. Well, enough is enough. When we speak to the people in regional South Australia, they deserve to be listened to. They want improved services, they want improved roads and infrastructure and they want improved job opportunities—and that's exactly what we will deliver to them.

As just a taste of some of the positive policies that we put on the table in the lead-up to the election, first of all we said that we will quarantine 30 per cent of all mining royalties in South Australia and earmark those royalties for our regions program, where we will put that money into regional roads and infrastructure. We will use that money to leverage money from other jurisdictions—the local government sector and, importantly, the federal government sector—to improve the roads and infrastructure and support those regional communities.

We've also made it very clear that we have a regional growth fund, which is a $150 million fund over the next decade to improve those opportunities to grow jobs in regional South Australia. At previous times, I have spoken about the importance of improved health services. Hopefully, I will get another opportunity to update the house on that very soon; but devolving governance down to the regions is a positive way to improve outcomes for people living across regional South Australia.